Trump seems to believe that cabinet officers, such as AG Jeff Sessions, work for him, personally, much the same way that department managers in the Trump Organization work for him. He further believes that they are required to do as he says.

In reality, while the POTUS does appoint cabinet members (subject, of course, to Senate approval), they are somewhat independent and are supposed to work for the good of the country.

This is especially true of the Justice Department. Even for investigations that do not involve the president, it is extremely dangerous to have the prez interfering with the workings of the FBI and the DOJ. The potential for political shenanigans is just too great. The integrity of the American justice system depends on politicians keeping their fingers out of that particular pie.

The president and Congress do and should have oversight authority for the DOJ, but it must be exercised at a very high level. When it becomes second-guessing and meddling in individual investigations, we're on very, very thin ice.

Trump would be more like Guy Fawkes, trying to blow up Parliament with barrels of gunpowder rather than Samson in the temple of Dagon. Samson was willing to kill himself in order to kill a multitude of Philistines, Guy Fawkes had plans to be a nice safe distance away when the Members of Parliament were blown to splinters.

Somehow the movie V For Vendetta made Fawkes into a hero instead of a master villain.

What other president could ever trigger cartoon writers / illustrators / painters to such images...

01/05/18 GOP strategist compares Trump team to ‘monkeys hurling their excrement at each other’

A GOP strategist lambasted President Trump on Thursday, saying that members of the president's team couldn't be less professional if they were monkeys "hurling their excrement at each other."

In an interview on MSNBC's "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell," Steve Schmidt accused Trump's closest aides of "vile" behavior, referencing the "chaos and incompetence" detailed in Michael Wolff's newly published book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House."

"We see in this book the chaos, the incompetence, the recklessness, the unpreparedness for duties and responsibilities around the most powerful person in the world of this entire menagerie," Schmidt said. "Truly, when you look at their comportment in this majestic place, the West Wing of the White House, they couldn't be more vile than if they were monkeys hurling their excrement at each other in a cage."

Schmidt is a top critic of the Trump administration on the right, and has frequently attacked the president's top aides in the past. The MSNBC contributor formerly served as Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) campaign manager during his unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid. <SNIP>

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"The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press." - Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, feminist and founder with others of NAACP.

"[Moderate] doesn't mean you don't have views. It just means your views aren't predictable ideologically one way or the other, and you're trying to follow the facts where they lead and reach your own conclusions."
-- Sen. King (R-ME)